What is a Creative Director: Definition, Role, and Responsibilities
7 min read
While in advertising, marketing and PR is not news to have a creative director in a senior position, this is not the case for many businesses. Many creative professionals would argue it’s the most crucial role in the company while financial experts, lawyers, and other experts would probably kindly (or not so kindly) disagree.
If you aren’t accustomed to what Creative Directors do or you are one of those pointing fingers at these “visionaries”, then this article is for you. We will provide a Creative Director definition, go over their roles and responsibilities, and mention their needs. Let’s go!
1. What is a Creative Director?
For someone who hasn’t worked with design agencies, it’s really hard to imagine what is a Creative Director, and to be honest – that’s normal. If a position ends with a “Director”, it is highly important for the business.
And while, as the name indicates, originality plays a huge role in defining the Creative Director job description, this position requires a lot of attention to detail, a lot of work with clients and senior managers, and being great with numbers.
In order to fit the job characteristics, a person should be able to implement long-term brand strategies for both the company and its clients, in order to generate more revenue. Let’s see the roles and responsibilities of the Creative Director.
2. Creative Director Roles and Responsibilities
A Creative Director’s central role is to create and sustain the vision for a company’s products, the product they produce for others, and the overall brand image of the business. This is a multi-dimensional task that can be broken down into any number of separately defined roles, all of which crucial for a successful business. The actual activities involved will obviously depend on the exact nature of your business, the size of the business, and the number of staff, as well as the scale of the business.
2.1. Business Management
A Creative Director plays a role in the senior management structure of the company.
- Creative vision – The Creative Director plays a pivotal role in defining the creative vision for the business and its brand. This should include target market and marketing and advertising. In addition, they help to establish the long-term vision of the company and its direction.
- Branding – As the Creative Director has an overall feel for the business, it is a role that requires creating a sense of the brand.
- Standards – The Creative Director has his finger on everything that’s going all and ensures that the standards are met and aligned in all areas of the creative flow. They
- Establishes budgets – The Creative Director will go through the budgets of various departments and the financial operations. They consider offers from 3rd party solutions and are part of the team that establishes the product price.
- Link with other Senior Managers or Executives – The Creative Director is responsible for the creative elements of the business and should maintain communication with other heads of departments and senior staff members.
2.2. Staff Management
One of the main roles of the Creative Director is to manage the creative team or teams.
- Employing the staff – A Creative Director can directly employ new staff, release unproductive team members, or assign the task to someone else. The Creative Director is responsible for the number of people who will work under their guidance.
- Guide and Supervise – Creative Directors act as senior managers who navigate their teams, mentor them and motivate them to improve results. A crucial part of their jobs is to supervise the progress of the teams and act when needed.
- Leadership and Development – A Creative Director can take the direct leadership of a team or hand it off to other managers. However, the Creative Director still holds the overall responsibility for the team. As such, the Creative Director selects the team leaders and gives them the autonomy and freedom to flourish. The Creative Director is also responsible for the professional development of the teams and the members in them.
- Setting the “tone” of work – The Creative Director is the person who is responsible for creating a good working environment and setting the direction of their teams.
2.3. Project Management
While the Creative Director doesn’t directly manage the project, they are held accountable for quite a lot of things, like:
- Decision Making – Input into the ideas and process of the project.
- Style Guides – Creation of a style guide to follow during the particular project.
- Timelines and Deadlines and Budgets – Overarching responsibility for meeting the designated project markers, on budget.
- Overseeing/Signing Off – Although the Creative Director may not be involved on a daily basis on the ground level, there should still be a level of oversight. And it is the Creative Director who signs off on the final completed project.
- Solutions – A Creative Director will step in to offer solutions or suggestions to issues that come along the way.
2.4. Client Management
Creative Directors are often directly involved with the clients or at the very least with the individual project managers who are dealing with the clients and advising them.
- Concept – A Creative Director can come up with concepts and ideas for clients. They have the technical knowledge and experience to persuade clients.
- Liaison – They communicate with clients on progress or issues that have arisen.
- Presentation – The presentation of the final project or the demonstration of milestones.
3. What Does A Creative Director Need?
In terms of skills and education, there is clearly a great deal of demand put on a Creative Director. It is also a pressure position so not everybody will cope even with the qualifications. Creative directors need experience, gained on the front line to back up the theory.
3.1. Education & Training
Typically Creative Directors come from a background of art rather than a business. A degree in an arts or design subject shows the skills and knowledge of the specific subject. Backing this up with a business qualification is an additional bonus, but many of the business skills can be picked up along the way.
Ideally, a Creative Director should have a broad knowledge base mixing formal training in art and design with an interest in contemporary culture and society, as well as the soft skills which are so important in business today.
Experience is vital for this role. A potential Creative Director should have and be able to demonstrate a portfolio of successful work. They also need to have shown some real responsibility and leadership in previous roles. Last but not least – an understanding of the industry as a whole, and the linked or dependent fields.
3.2. Skills
Alongside the artistic skills required as a prerequisite in this area, a good Creative Director will need to be able to show business and social skills to warrant this high-level position.
Communication and other soft skills to be able to deal with clients and team members as well as other executives. They need to be organized, level-headed, be able to multi-task, be a creative force but stay professional, motivate and inspire, and all this whilst making sure everybody is thinking and acting in the same direction.
Conclusion
A Creative Director is a crucial position in any company. It is the person who controls how the brand will look in front of potential clients. And unlike typical creative positions like designers and writers, a Creative Director is directly involved with the higher management of the client’s side.
And if you think of someone who can come up with original ideas, work on concepts, assign budgets, and manage people at the same time – you might easily guess what their job position is.